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But if any man, independent of all regular appointment, is to take upon himself the discharge of an office, for which he may feel himself disposed, or think himself qualified; the fociety having no longer any fecurity for the proper management of its concerns, the end for which it has been collected being thereby fruftrated, its confequent diffolution must enfue.

This mode of reasoning, fo far as temporal affairs are concerned, we readily admit. Let it be applied, as it ought to be, to the cafe of the church, confidered as a fociety, formed by GoD under a particular government calculated to promote the end of its institution; and we shall conclude in one cafe, as in the other, that perfonal qualifications furnish no difpenfation for an outward appointment to an office of truft; because this is the only security which the members of the church can have against imposture; it being the only criterion by which they can judge, who are the minifters of the church, and who are not.

We do not fay that the perfonal qualification of the minister in fpiritual matters, is not requifite to the proper discharge of his facred office; becaufe it confeffedly is fo to a certain degree, and on that account truly desirable: but what we would be un

derstood to fay is, that in the administration of an outward facrament, which is to be confidered as the appointed means of fpiritual communication from GOD to man; nothing is to be regarded as abfolutely necessary, but the lawfulness of the commiffion by which it is administered. For it is the commiffion which fecures to us the Divine confirmation of the ministerial act, and not the perfonal qualification of the minister; that the eye of the faithful may be directed to the proper object, and GoD, not man, receive the glory.

JUDAS received a commiffion from our SAVIOUR to baptize, no less than the other Apoftles. And there can be no doubt, but that the baptifm adminif tered by him was equally effectual with that administered by any other Apostle. Yet we read that this JUDAS was a devil. JOHN vi. From whence it is to be observed, that the power of Divine grace, happily for mankind, is not limited by the poorness of the inftrument appointed to convey it; and that a minifterial act performed by proper authority, may be valid to the parties to whom it is applied, be the performer of it ever fo unworthy.*

* "Sacramentum non ex ejus manu eftimandum effe a quo adminiftratur, fed velut ex ipfa Dar manu, a quo haud dubie profectum

"For this caufe," fays ST. BARNABAS, in his Catholic epiftle, c. 5, "did CHRIST choose men who were exceeding finners, to be his apostles; to fhew the greatness of his power and grace; and put the ineftimable treasure of his Gospel into earthen veffels, that the praise might be to GOD, and not to men."t

The idea of the perfonal fanctity of the minifter being neceffary to the effectual administration of his office, conftituted one of the earliest errors in the. Christian church; and has accompanied it through every stage of its progrefs. The effect of it, whereever it has prevailed, has been uniformly destructive of peace and unity; by fixing the eye of the Chriftian worshipper upon the man, rather than upon the office; by which means the persons of ministers being held in admiration, the commiffion by which they have been authorised to act in the miniftry has become an object of inferior confideration.

But it should be remembered, that there is an holinefs of office, independent of the holiness of the

eft: inde colligere licet nihil illi afferri vel auferri ejus dignitate per cujus manum traditur."-CALV. Inftit. lib. iv. c. 15.

Such, we should remind the reader, is the principle laid down by our Church in her 26th Article..

minister; the former, being effential to the validity of the ministerial act, is on that account not to be difpenfed with, whilft the latter only recommends and adorns it.

That these two qualifications fhould always meet together, is doubtless a circumftance most devoutly to be wished; but as, through the infirmity of hu- man nature, this will not always be the cafe, it ought to become an object of primary concern with us in our judgment upon this point, that the greater confideration be at no time facrificed to the leffer one.

Where the inward call of the Spirit is therefore pleaded as a warrant for undertaking the facred office, we have a right to expect that it fhould be accompanied with the outward call, or a regular appointment to that office; because reason tells us, that the end for which the church, as a fociety, was inftituted, requires that thus it fhould be; because, moreover, where there could be no poffibility of deception in the party, as in the cafe of our bleffed SAVIOUR, (a circumftance which challenges particular confideration) this conformity to order was judged neceffary to be obferved. And if our bleffed SAVIOUR Condefcended to regulate his public exercife of a facred office by this rule of order, with the

view, doubtlefs, that it fhould become obligatory upon every fucceeding minister in his church; we need not hesitate to call it fomething worse than prefumption in man, upon the ground of any qualification whatever, to plead an exemption from it.

What zeal foever, therefore, a man may feel, and what qualification foever he may poffefs for the fervice of GOD; ftill GOD, to be ferved acceptably, must be served in his own way. Well-meaning people (and I wish to speak of them with refpect, for we may honour their principle at the fame time that we condemn their practice) fhould confider, that good intention and regular practice are two very different things; and that the former can never make amends for the diforder occafioned by the defect of the latter. On this account it is, that the intention of the agent is never admitted as a fanction for the irregularity of his act. UZZAH, it is probable, meant well, when " he put forth his hand to hold the ark." But UzZAH was ftruck dead on the spot, for invading the office of the priesthood. 1 Chron. xiii. 9. SAUL, it is prefumed, meant well, when, in the absence of SAMUEL, he offered the burnt-offering. But the sentence

pronounced against him was, that in fo doing " he "had done foolishly; that he had not kept the com

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